At VA SYD’s head office, our innovative toilet system is now being installed to dry the urine to solid fertilizer, directly under the toilet. By sorting out the urine, most of the nutrients can be recycled from the sewage. We, researchers, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have been developing the new technology, which will be tested in Malmö and Lund, within the REWAISE project.
Urine contains about 75 percent of the plant nutrients that leave households via the sewer. By sorting out the urine directly in the toilet and drying it into a powder instead of diluting it in the pipes to the sewage treatment plant, the nutrients can go directly back to the cycle and be used for plants and cultivation locally.
−VA SYD wants to be a test bed for innovative solutions, among other things to increase the recycling of plant nutrients. We see that there is a great need to test new sewage solutions and as a major VA player, we have an important role to play here, says Helena Norlander, investigation engineer at VA SYD and technical project manager for REWAISE.
The new toilet has a unique system that not only sorts out the urine from the rest of the wastewater in the toilet, but also dries it to a powder. The urine powder is stable and storable for the growing season. The valuable plant nutrients are sorted out directly instead of being sent to the sewage treatment plant where a smaller part of the plant nutrients can be extracted. In addition, in the long run, both the climate impact and the risk of eutrophication in lakes and seas decrease.
-Our technology is the first of its kind that converts all nutrients from urine to pure dry plant nutrients. In addition, we do it directly under the toilet. There is no need to change the piping in the building, which makes it possible to install the system in both new and old properties. The step from research in our lab at SLU to the first implementation of the prototype is crucial for us to be able to scale up our work, says Jenna Senecal, researcher and co-developer of the technology at SLU.
The first prototype of the toilet system will be installed at VA SYD’s head office in Malmö, to be tested and evaluated. In 2022, two more toilets will be installed in the urban development areas Brunnshög in Lund and Sege Park in Malmö. This is done within the REWAISE project, which aims to use local resources in a smarter and more efficient way. Now the researchers are taking the technology further through their start-up company, Sanitation360, together with the design company EOOS Next. The researchers continue to work on developing the system and drying technology for commercialization.
Fact box about the toilet system
- Unique new toilet system, which dries the urine for plant nutrition directly under the toilet. Behind the system are researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU. The toilet is a new urinal toilet made by Laufen.
- The first prototype of a toilet system will be installed in Malmö at VA SYD. In 2021, two more toilet systems will be installed in Sege Park, Malmö and Brunnshög, Lund.
- The new toilet system extracts the water from the urine and provides a dry, safe plant nutrient. The system processes up to 6 liters per day (approximately 25 to 30 toilet visits).
- Drying provides easier storage and transport of nutrients to local cultivation.
- Urine makes up only 1% of the volume, but contains about 75% of the nutrients contained in the wastewater.
Fact box about REWAISE
- REWAISE stands for REsilient Water Innovation for Smart Water Economy and runs from 2020 to 2025.
- The project has been supported by the European Framework Program Horizon2020 and is a collaboration between 24 partners in 11 countries.
- The Swedish part is project-led by VA SYD and is working to investigate how water use can be improved with examples from the urban development process in Sege Park in Malmö and Brunnshög in Lund.
- Partners in the Swedish part of the project are Lund Municipality, Lund University, City of Malmö, MKB, P-Malmö, SLU, Sweden Water Research, VA SYD and Win Water.